The CHY1001 ‘Environmental Studies’ course is designed as a series of invited guest lectures along with project work. These lectures are focused on growing students’ awareness to the environment, understanding the fundamentals of our ecosystem, and ultimately towards finding the solutions of current environmental issues. Our eleventh invited online lecture for the Fall 2020-21 semester was on ‘Microbial refinery for the conversion of waste-to-resources’, held with MS-Teams live event, where approximately 500 students participated.

The guest speaker, Dr. Krishna P. Katuri, explained the liquid waste generation and importance of its management to the society. He explained the anaerobic electrochemical membrane bioreactor, which is a unique bioreactor for the harnessing energy and clean water. Dr Katuri further enriched the understandings by explaining the answers for the doubts and questions raised by the enthusiastically attended students.

Dr. Soumyakanta Prusty, Assistant Professor of Chemistry coordinated the online lecture along with all other chemistry faculty members. Dr. Sabeel M Basheer, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry welcomed the gathering and introduced the guest to the audience. Dr. Areti Sivaiah, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry delivered the vote of thanks and the online webinar lecture was concluded.